Vince Lombardi will always be the greatest coach in NFL history
Vince Lombardi is the greatest head coach in the history of the NFL, and even a sixth Super Bowl ring for Bill Belichick won’t change that.
In 1933, the NFL split into conferences for the first time, and in that season they also had another first. They played a championship game for the first time. The New York Giants met the Chicago Bears at Wrigley field. and the Bears won 23-21. Since that game, only one head coach has won three consecutive championships: Vince Lombardi.
In the history of the NFL, only four coaches have won at least five championships. The aforementioned Vince Lombardi and Bill Belichick, Bears head coach/owner George Halas and Packers head coach Curly Lambeau. What makes Lombardi’s accomplishment greater, even though Halas and Lambeau won six titles and Belichick could have six by the end of Super Bowl LII, is the length of time it took each to get to his fifth world championship.
Lambeau took 19 seasons to win his fifth. Halas took 20 seasons to win his fifth, and Belichick 22 seasons to win his fifth. Lombardi, however, coached the Packers for nine seasons and won three pre-Super Bowl Era NFL Championships and the first two Super Bowls. The second Super Bowl title was in his ninth career coaching season. He’s the only one to complete the feat of at least five championship by the time he finished his 10th career NFL season as a head coach.
Belichick also had another thing that Lombardi didn’t. He had the time to fail as a head coach, go back to being an assistant, and then get another chance. Lombardi’s only chance would’ve been to turn the Packers around or never get another chance, and he did it. Belichick coached the Browns until he was 43 years old, then he got his second chance when he was 48. Lombardi was 46 when he got his first head coaching opportunity in the NFL.
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Winning isn’t the only thing
One of Lombardi’s most famous quotes is, “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.” However, when judging someone’s impact/greatness, sometimes it’s more than just a win-loss record and championships that makes the legacy.
In 1944, Lambeau led the franchise to their sixth NFL Championship. From 1921-44, the Packers finished with seven wins or more 19 times and had a 3-2 playoff record (including a conference tie-breaker with the Bears in 1941). From 1945-58, they failed to win seven games once.
As a result, fans stopped showing up to games at Lambeau Field and Milwaukee County Stadium. The team ended up in a financial crisis and were on the verge of potentially being moved by the NFL, and then Lombardi was hired in 1959 not only to be the head coach but the general manager.
As a result of new training methods and a new found effort from the players, Lombardi led the Packers to a 7-5 finish and won the Coach of the Year award. In 1960, as the fans appreciated what Lombardi brought to the table, the fans sold out every Packers home game, and have done so ever since.
You can clearly point to Lombardi and say he’s the reason the Packers are still in Green Bay to this day. Say what you will about Belichick winning five Super Bowls (and possibly his sixth this year). There were no questions about the New England Patriots surviving as a franchise if he failed.
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The complexity comparison
You can say that the game was much simpler to coach in Lombardi’s day than Belichick’s. That said, the other coaches who won five championships that coached in what was probably simpler than Lombardi’s also took at least twice as long to win their fifth titles in their respective careers. So that argument is moot.
He saved the Packers franchise for the city of Green Bay and won five championships in nine seasons. That makes him the best of all-time. He came through in the biggest clutch situation ever facing a head coach. That’s why Vince Lombardi is the best.